There has been much research carried out into the topic of labour turnover over many years. Staffs who are satisfied are more likely to stay working for a business. Research has also shown that there can be many reasons for dissatisfaction, and that they will vary in different situations. One of the main aims of this work was to carry out research into the causal effects of labour turnover at fast food restaurants in Dublin City. This was achieved in the form of a self-completion questionnaire, which sought to measure staff opinions and attitudes,
from a census of staff. The main drivers of turnover identified were: pay rates; lack of career development; hours of work; training; poor staff recognition; staff and employer relationship; staff working condition; and communications etc.

Bullying is a concerning worldwide public social, mental and physical health risk and carries many adverse and long-term consequences, including depression, anxiety and psychological maladjustment. Bullying occurs regularly in most school settings, with many children frequently observing some form of bullying at school. School based victimisation is associated with increased school absence and poorer academic attainment. Chapter one explores existing literature on bullying, including definitions, categories, roles, risks and consequences, prevalence and age-related prevalence. Chapter 2 discusses legal requirements on schools to have an antibullying policy that sets out their preventive and reactive work and includes an
overview of the legislation, government guidance, and common school practice in the UK. Chapter 3 reports on the implementation of the KiVa, the Finnish school-based antibullying programme, delivered in Key Stage 2 [aged 7 to 11 years] of UK primary schools. First, it describes the baseline characteristics of approximately 12,000 pupils prior to KiVa implementation, reporting the baseline prevalence of victim, bully, and bully-victim status and then evaluates the outcomes and costs for 41 early implementer schools after one year of
implementation. Chapter 4 describes the development, theoretical foundations, and supporting Finnish and International evidence for the KiVa programme, and the introduction of KiVa to the UK. Chapter 5 presents a case study of KiVa in a UK primary school and lessons learned from implementation. The final chapter, chapter 6, provides a summary of the research findings and discusses their implications, strengths, limitations, and future directions for research and implementation of the KiVa antibullying programme.

The dominant discourse in the media is that we live in a post-feminist era, in which feminism is no longer needed as women have achieved equality (McRobbie, 2004), and are assertive, confident, dominant, and equal. However, in sexting research (Ringrose et al., 2013; 2012), girls and boys still inhabit contradictory positions on what it means to do femininity or masculinity.

This study focuses on sexting amongst young people in Northern Ireland about which there is very little qualitative research. Interviews were conducted with four stakeholder organisations who assist schools in the delivery of Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE), and with pastoral care co-ordinators in three post-primary schools to ascertain how their school is currently responding to sexting issues. Focus group interviews were then conducted with seventeen (ten girls and seven boys) 14–17-year-olds.

Stakeholder organisations and schools view sexting behaviour in various ways: as child sexual abuse, bullying, selfish gratification, and a child protection issue. By contrast, young people see sexting as normal behaviour. The young people report that it is more likely to be boys pressurising girls for a picture, a common finding in sexting research. Unlike the literature, however, this study found that girls also instigate sexting and put pressure on boys to send pictures. Despite this, there is still an unequal relationship between girls and boys because of the objectification of girls (and, rarely, boys). The study concludes that young people should advise on the content of RSE lessons and resources, and that RSE should move away from telling young people not to sext but to help them explore appropriate relationship behaviours, including sexting. Teachers should have access to appropriate training to help them feel confident about teaching such material.

The focus of the thesis was to investigate the concurrent and longitudinal effects of friendship for coping with school-based peer-victimisation in late childhood. This addressed a gap in the literature pertaining to the role of friendship in children’s endorsement of coping behaviour and the buffering effect of friendship on the experience of school loneliness following reports of expected maladaptive coping behaviour. Specifically, the thesis addressed two research questions: (1) What is the role of friendship for coping with school-based peer-victimisation? and (2) Does friendship buffer against the negative effects of maladaptive peer-victimisation coping?

These research questions were addressed via a three-wave longitudinal study that examined the concurrent (Chapter 6) and longitudinal (Chapter 7) relationships between peer-victimisation, friendship (quantity and quality), expected peer-victimisation coping behaviour (internalising, retaliation, avoidance, peer support, adult support, and problem solving) and school loneliness (as an indicator of psychosocial adjustment). Longitudinal social network models (Chapter 8) were also applied to examine the co-evolution between friendship and children’s expected peer-victimisation coping behaviour. The sample used throughout the thesis was drawn from a population of primary school children aged between 9 to 11 years old (England Year 5 and Year 6). A total of 529 children were invited to take part in the study from across eight schools, this resulted in a final sample of 443 children (55.7% female) at Time 1, 334 children (55.5% female) at Time 2, and 354 children (57.9% female) at Time 3.

Findings from across the thesis indicate that children’s friendship experiences are concurrently and longitudinally related to expected peer-victimisation coping behaviour. However, these relationships were dependent upon the type of friendship experience (quantity and quality) and the type of expected coping behaviour. Furthermore, negative friendship experiences (conflict within friendships and low levels of reciprocated friendships) were found to exacerbate the negative effects of expected maladaptive (internalising) coping. This was associated with increased feelings of school loneliness in children and continued experiences of verbal peer-victimisation. Through longitudinal and network data, the empirical research presented in this thesis highlights the important contribution of friends and peers for peer-victimisation coping (or expected coping) in children.

Cyberbullying of teachers by their pupils has not been researched as widely as adolescent bullying or cyberbullying. The cyberbullying of teachers by pupils has been defined as “the creation of digital texts, images and recordings that portray the teacher in ways that are demeaning and/or ridicule the teacher, which are then transmitted electronically to others” (Kyriacou & Zuin, 2015, p.267). This research attempts to provide a diverse understanding of the online lives of teachers in post-primary schools in Ireland. Some of the variables for examination include how teachers self-regulate their profiles on social media, the security and privacy prevention tools used and their attitudes towards communicating with students online. This research investigates the types of cyberbullying that teachers experience and how this influences them in their roles as teachers within their school environment. Negative physical and mental health effects including severe stress, fear for personal safety, teacher and pupil performance has been identified as a result of pupils bullying and cyberbullying teachers, this is an additional area of examination. This research utilises a quantitative approach to provide further insight into teacher cyber victimisation to develop support structures for teachers and schools.